MARGARET GODOLPHIN, Some of her entries show her mode of life. " I must, till Lent," she says, " rise at half-an -hour after eight o'clock ; whilst I put on morning clothes, say the prayer for death and the Te Deum : then presently to my prayers, and so either dress myself or go to church prayers. When I go into the withdrawing-room, let me consider what my calling is : to entertain the ladies, not to talk foolishly to men-more especially the King." Meanwhile, John Evelyn was discovering more every day the goodness and modesty of the favourite friend of his wife ; and he was delighted to find howmuch he had mistaken her character, and that " so young, so elegant, so charming a wit and beauty should present so much virtue in a place where it neither naturally grew nor much was culti- vated." Their increasing friendship is shown by a memorandum in his Diary : -" 31 July, 1672. -I entertained the maids of honour (among whom there was one I infinitely esteem for her many and ex- traordinary virtues) at a comedy this afternoon." Margaret is here indicated, though not mentioned by name. Some weeks after, being bound through cour- tesy, when he came to Whitehall, to wait upon Miss Howard, although he was afraid that he was " the most unfit person in the world for the entertainments of the ante-chamber, and the little spirits that dwell in Fairy Land," he more closely encountered Mar- garet. On entering the saloon, he met her, and, perceiving that she was superbly arrayed for an 22
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